SLB waiving application and processing fees
Published:Thursday | June 11, 2020 | 11:23 AM
Students applying for loans from the Students’ Loan Bureau (SLB) for the upcoming academic year will not be required to pay application and processing fees to the lending agency.
Finance and the Public Service Minister Dr Nigel Clarke made the announcement last night during his contribution to the debate on the First Supplementary Estimates of Expenditure in Gordon House.
“I want to take the opportunity to remind all respective applicants that notwithstanding the challenges posed by COVID-19, the Students’ Loan Bureau remains open for business,” Clarke said.
“We want our students to be able to access and to continue their education,” the finance minister added.
Earlier when the Standing Finance Committee was reviewing the revised budget, Clarke told his parliamentary colleagues that with the COVID-19 pandemic, fewer students have approached the SLB to access loans.
He said that applications for student loans have declined significantly.
This development is of concern to the bureau as it wants to ensure that the enrolment rate for tertiary studies in the society remains high, Clarke said.
He said that the SLB carried out an analysis of why applications had plunged and found that persons were not coming forward to apply because they did not have the resources to pay the costs associated with accessing the loans.
Data from the SLB shows that prior to COVID-19, some 99 per cent of applicants received loans.
“The rejection rate is minuscule, almost non-existent, everybody virtually, but one per cent, who walks through the door and applies, gets through,” Clarke said.
Despite the deferral of $2.7 billion in allocation to the SLB in the budget this fiscal year, the lending agency still has enough resources to offer loans to students this year.
The SLB has $6.2 billion to meet demands this year.
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